Last week, kossacks learned of the inimitably charmless Lindel Toups, chairman of the Lafourche Parish council, who leaped into the national spotlight from the lower elevations of our fair state with his reasons for supporting a measure to rob the parish's libraries to build new jail space.
Libraries, it seems, are dens of iniquity and sanctuaries for sneaky brown-skinned Others.
“They’re teaching Mexicans how to speak English,” Toups told the local Tri-Parish Times, referencing Biblioteca Hispana, a Spanish-language section of one of the nine branch libraries. “Let that son of a bitch go back to Mexico. There’s just so many things they’re doing that I don’t agree with. ... Them junkies and hippies and food stamps [recipients] and all, they use the library to look at drugs and food stamps [on the Internet]. I see them do it.”
While Toups' complaints were admittedly a bit confusing--Latinos ability to converse in a language
not English is a frequent complaint of right wing blowhards and the benefits gained by viewing images of drugs or food stamps are unclear--the public did grasp the idea that Councilman Toups for damn sure wanted that initiative passed. And the public responded.
56-44 against. As the Houma Today headlined this morning, Lafourche voters choose books over crooks. In a 15% turnout Saturday election that was mostly runoff races, voters in the parish resoundingly stood up for their library system and the promise it holds for a better life, and against expanding our state's mind-numbingly huge prison empire.
Library Director Laura Sanders expressed the relief of her fellow bibliophiles and parish residents. "Obviously, we're very happy with the results. We tried very hard to get the word out that losing this funding would affect the libraries and our daily operations."
Toups, meanwhile, was crushed. He told the Today reporter he was "at a loss for words."
Which, given his utterances when not, is something of a lagniappe.